UK charges US diplomat’s wife in crash, death of motorcyclist

LONDON — An American diplomat’s wife who left the U.K. after being involved in a road accident that killed a British teenager has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving, British prosecutors said Friday.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab welcomed the move, but the State Department called the move unhelpful.

British police say motorcycle rider Harry Dunn, 19, died in August when he was hit by a car driven by Sacoolas, whose husband was an intelligence officer at RAF Croughton, a military base in central England used by U.S. forces.

Sacoolas claimed diplomatic immunity and left Britain after the crash.

Dunn’s family has urged Sacoolas to return and face British justice, and met with U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this year Washington as part of their campaign.

Britain’s prosecution service said it had authorized police to charge Sacoolas with causing death by dangerous driving — which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison — “following a thorough review of the evidence available.”

Prosecutors said they had begun extradition proceedings although it is up to the government to formally ask for Sacoolas to be sent back to Britain.

In its statement, the State Department expressed “deepest sympathies” over Dunn’s death but said the decision to charge Sacoolas was not “a helpful development.”

“I hope that Anne Sacoolas will now realize the right thing to do is to come back to the U.K. and cooperate with the criminal justice process,” Raab, the foreign secretary, said.